So, I sort of feel like I have been hit with an emotional truck today. Moments like these, I take Julie Andrews' advice. Here is a list of things that make me smile. It can come in handy. Feel free to add.
1. Lite Brite
2. Playing cards with my family
3. Bubble baths
4. When people mix up words, like saying "flutter by" when you mean to say "butterfly" or, most recently, when I proclaimed very loudly (in response to yesterday's post) that "donds aren't blumb!" - Blonds aren't dumb.
5. Any wild, crazy girls'-night-out and the hundreds of memories that go with them
6. Beverly Cleary - "Ramona the Great" and "Socks" specifically
7. The cute old ladies at the grocery store that always sheepishly ask me to get them something off the high-up shelf. The last one was particularly adorable when she exclaimed, "What luck! Oh, to be tall!" as she walked away giggling to herself
8. Kara
9. Strep throat medicine that tasted like bubble gum
10. My brother and sister's infamous magic show.
11. Sleepovers as a little kid
12. Office supplies
13. Warm cookies (preferably chocolate chip) and milk
14. Sitting on the beach in Marseilles with Kathy
15. Porch swings (especially at 502 Crest Ave)
16. 7th grade dances and the zombie dance that girls did with boys and vice versa
17. My Dad reading me "The Mighty Casey At Bat" (not sure if that's the real title, but it's the title in my head) in the recliner in our old house when I was a tyke.
18. Playing "house" in the elementary school jungle gym
19. Mad libs
20. "Choose Your Own Adventure"
21. I was down and lonely once and my brother wrote me a note. It said, "I'm sorry Lee, let's ::drawing of a bee:: friends."
22. Mackinac Island fudge
23. Capri Sun
24. Picnics
25. The 1991 Bulls-Pistons final
26. Leaves in Michigan in the fall
27. When a freshly weened child kept pointing to my breasts with her hand, sort of grabbing them, saying "What's that?" over and over and over again. Her father said, "Uh, sorry. She's just been weened. She's still a little attached to the ah...the female bosom."
28. All the regulars at my greasy spoon diner where I waitressed: Sandy, Laverne, the Chicken Soup Couple, the Crazy Caffeine Dude, the Family of Three, the Antique Dealers, the Milligans, Pat, the Chain Smokers, the Market Boys (Jaimie, Tom). I've got a soft spot in my heart for all of them.
29. My first cassette player
30. People that look like their dogs and dogs that look like their people
31. The doctor that gave us Snackwell's cookies after each visit (vanilla flavored).
32. Clifford, that big red dog
33. Road trips
34. The bridges in Paris
35. Wearing matching pants/overalls/shoes, etc as one's friends in elementary school. We went so far as to have matching backpacks.
36. The song "Her Majesty" on the Beatles' Abbey Road album.
37. Sledding
38. Mysteriously bad fashion trends: pegging your pants, scrunchies, high hair (I never could do that), purple/pink/blue eyeshadow, acid-washed pants, Hammer pants, Hypercolor shirts...
39. Jump rope ("Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn all around, Teddy Bear Teddy Bear touch the ground...")
40. The first sunny, warm day of every year
41. My fourth grade teacher
42. My dad's bowl cuts for us three kids (we still have photos)
43. MacGyver - he's so clever
44. A good brisk walk on a cold day, followed by a cup of tea
45. Campfires and Smores
46. Calvin and Hobbes - and their understood love for one another
47. Snuggling
48. Rolypolies (I have no idea how to spell that)
49. Winks (as long as they're not from creepy old men)
50. A long, giggly conversation on the phone with a good friend